1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a content providing system, a content providing apparatus, and a content providing method that enable users to search a large-capacity storage device for a large volume of content, such as music pieces, movies, and electronic books by using time information as a search key. The invention also relates to a content distribution server and a content receiving terminal used for the content providing system, apparatus, and method.
In this specification, content is information composed of, for example, music, video (including movies, television broadcast programs, and photographed images), electronic books (text information, such as theses, novels, and magazines, and still image information), guidance information, web pages, and programs (including game programs).
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, time information, composed of, for example, second, minute, hour, day, month, and year, is stored in a content storage unit in association with corresponding content, and when searching for content, the stored time information is used as a keyword.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-259313 discloses a recording/playback apparatus that enables a user to easily find desired content. In this recording/playback apparatus, the titles of programs and their recording dates are stored in a content storage unit in association with each other, and when the user specifies a date to search for a recorded program, the title of the found program can be displayed as a search result.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-139576 discloses an apparatus and method for creating albums from image data obtained through, for example, journeys. Image data is stored together with information concerning the photograph date. Also, information concerning journeys, such as departure places, departure times, and final destinations, is stored in a server. Then, the places where the image data have been obtained along a user's route in a journey are estimated on the basis of the photograph date information added to the image data. Then, image data of images photographed by other persons related to the estimated places, or text data, such as a description of the estimated places, are read from a corresponding storage unit. As a result, an album can be created from the image data and the related data.